Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera - Blue Reviews

• Worth buying

  
  By A27N2Q0DC80YHI on 2007-09-02
  We bought this without expecting too much (after having problems with a cheaper camera), and this is a good camera for young children 3+
  
  What's good?
  - physical Design makes it easy to look through and hold, robust construction,
  - Simple contols, kids easily learned the User Interface and how to take photos. Has simple sounds as well that accompony power on/off, shutter
  - the one we bought took a standard 128MB SD card which provides heaps of storage for photos of this size
  - no PC drivers required - mounts as a standard USB storage device
  
  Needs improvement:
  - picture quality - its OK, but very basic. Sort of 1MP phone quality.
  - rear display - fairly poor, but workable.
  - Some troubles getting it detected by WinXP on our notebook, but with repititon it worked
  
  Overall:
  - Great learning toy for the kids to figure out what photography is. They copy what adults do, and this is a great way to learn. They have learnt if you take lots of pictures, you have to sort through them and delete the cruddy ones. How to compose a photo. And they learn about composing photos and what photos look like if you just press the shutter button at any time.
  
  The picture quality is only part of it - it is the overall experience that matters. The simple User Interface and durable design mean that this is a toy that kids should get some life out of. Reccomended (though a higher picture quality version would be nice!).
  
  Note: - there is a high quality mode which needs to be turned on. Press both arrow keys and press the shutter button which turns on a cross hatched pattern symbol in the lower left of the display. Pictures instead of being 640 x 480 are 1280 x 960. I don't know whether this is a higher quality or just interpolated, but it looks worthwhile having.
  
  

• Great Camera for the Little Ones

  
  By A12JSZZF5BFKX2 on 2007-10-24
  After spending a lot of time researching digital cameras for little kids, we decided on the Kid Tough camera. The downside to buying a camera rugged enough for a young child is that the resolutions are terrible. At least the KT camera rates at 1 megapixel, unlike several others that have .3 megapixels which is borderline pointless. Because of the lower resolutions, the pictures are comparable to cell photo photos, but that's been perfectly peachy for us so far.
  
  There is no question that the camera is rugged - it has already been dropped about 20 times and still works like new. Hooking it up to my Mac or my husband's PC has been very easy (although be aware the creativity software is PC only).
  
  Here are the negatives:
  
  1. The flash is way too bright, and it overexposed almost every photo. We fixed this by taking a small square of a paper towel and placing it over the flash with a piece of clear packing tape. It works beautifullly as a diffuser.
  
  2. The delete button is too easy for little kids to hit. In future versions, FP should make it very difficult for little kids to delete pictures. Let mom and dad do the deleting.
  
  3. Would it kill any of these manufacturers to make software Mac compatible?
  
  All in all, I would definitely recommend the camera to any parent looking for a rugged camera for their toddler/young elementary aged kids.
  
  

• Great camera for little kids

  
  By A3MFGD9WEJK2RU on 2007-07-14
  We bought this camera for our son's 3rd birthday. He had an old camera of ours that didn't work so he was excited to have his own, especially since it worked. It's a very cool and simple to use camera. Within about 5 minutes of opening it and looking at it with dad, he understood what the buttons did and was clicking away taking pictures. It's super easy to upload the pictures onto our computer and the picture quality is much better once loaded onto the computer.
  Another cool thing (that I didn't notice when I bought it) is the binocular eye piece. I think it would have been hard for him if it wasn't.
  This is a great camera - it's very cool to see what he takes pictures of and especially those everyday things that you can now see from a 3-year-old's perspective. If you have a kid who is even a little interested in pictures and photography I think this is a must have!!
  
  

• Waste of time & money

  
  By A37C8XTVKHA656 on 2007-11-05
  We bought this camera for our two year old daughter, as she had developed an interest in photography. The box and FP web site had lots of promises about it, unfortunately they neglected to mention its shortcomings. Forget the high quality images you see in the advertisements for this product, it is no SLR.
  
  First off the camera shoots at 640x480, with higher resolution by interpolation. What is interpolation, I hear you asking? The camera fakes having a higher resolution by averaging two neighbouring pixels in the image. This leaves you with a larger image, but it contains no additional information, and will actually lose sharpness.
  
  Secondly, the optical viewfinder is not lined up with the image sensor in the camera. This means that if the child relies on the viewfinder to frame the shot, they are going to cut off heads.
  
  Thirdly, the quality of the LCD is extremely poor. Everything is very dark and washed out.
  
  Fourth, and most importantly, image quality. I took 100 pictures with this camera to test it, in a variety of light situations and both with and without flash. The quality of the images it takes are abysmal. Even with perfect lighting and composition, only about 1 in 10 images will come out looking somewhat reasonable. Chromatic aberration of the lens is extreme, with purple fringing around everything bright. Focus is non-existent, and the flash performance is miserable.
  
  If you want a fake camera for your kid to cary around and pretend to take pictures with, I recommend that route over spending the extra money and getting this camera. If you are after pictures that you can print out and stick on the refrigerator or show off to your friends, you won't find them here. You want your child to enjoy the photography experience, not learn the meaning of disappointment when the image they took of the puppy doesn't turn out. Unless you are into life lessons.
  
  Save your money & buy the kid something you won't be returning next week.
  
  

• Louuusy

  
  By A3OK6ZGYVE75K8 on 2007-08-09
  Do not buy. Image quality is that of the first generation mobile phone cameras. It is sturdy, but you can barely see what the picture is. Internal memory allows for 48 pictures. My son used that up in 5 minutes. I added a 250MB but it does not recognize. Its a plan card that is 1X...My son now basiclaly uses it to pretend to take pictures. I will wait another year and buy him a regular camera an hope he doesn't use it for a baseball.
  
  
  
  
• A fun toy, but not perfect
  By A3F5V7DR0TEV11 on 2008-01-01
  I bought this for my 4-year old for Christmas. He has had a blast with it, along with his relatives and friends at Christmas parties etc.
  
  The shape is great for small hands, and the interface is so simple he and his friends mastered it in no time.
  
  However, it is not perfect. The first problem we noticed is that it cuts off the top of what you compose in the viewfinder. So your toddler needs to learn to aim high or use the preview screen. But the preview screen is very poor quality and difficult to use for composition (it's okay for image review).
  
  Next, the flash strength and image exposure seem to be always the same, so if a subject is close enough for their head to fill the frame top to bottom, they'll be very overexposed. But if they're too far away in dim lighting for the flash to fully illuminate them, then they'll be underexposed. The ideal range, judging from several days' worth of photos, seems to be around head and shoulders to head and full torso, for average adults.
  
  But kids that age still enjoy it even when pictures are over and underexposed. If they can recognize the subject, it's fun for them.
  
  That said, pictures taken all the way across a typical dimly-lit living room turn out pretty dark, and will probably just be deleted. Athough it does fine indoors at the right distance range, this camera should be taken outdoors during the day, too, for better results.
  
  Oh -- one tip for indoor shooting: Wait for the flash icon at the lower left of the screen to show the flash is ready. When kids shoot rapidly, some of the shots are taken before the flash is ready, and are all the darker.
  
  Next problem: The screen is square, and does not show the whole picture. The pictures are rectangular (640 x 480, or 1280 x 960), and the screen just cuts off the left and right edges.
  
  Finally, the option to take higher-resolution pictures does NOT improve picture quality, in my tests. I did two tests: one of a refridgerator covered with lots of detailed magnets and things attached with the magnets, and a large photo of a baby's head (taken at an angle to avoid flash glare). In both cases, the 1280 x 960 shot did NOT look any better overall than the 640 x 480 shot. They looked very slightly different, and a few details looked very slightly better while other details looked very slightly worse. But overall it was a wash. I'm sticking with the lower resolution to allow more shots, since it looks as good as the higher resolution.
  
  BTW, I was surprised to find that mine did not include any instructions or software in the package. I learned how to set it to higher resolution from one of the reviews here (hold both arrow buttons down while pressing the shutter, then do the same again to set it back to low resolution).
  
  Regarding overall picture quality, the best pictures are not all that bad for 0.3 megapixel and cheap plastic lens. My 4-year old took one of my wife that I kind of like.
  
  This camera is a fun way for small kids to get started taking real pictures. But older kids will get better results from an adult's camera.
  
  
  
  
• Kids had a blast!
  By A3Q0V1B3L8W534 on 2007-09-28
  Ok, so the picture quality isn't great, but my kids don't notice and are THRILLED with the camera. My son took his camera to his 5th bday party at the bowling alley and all the kids had a blast passing the camera around taking pictures of each other. I would have been freaking if my camera was being passed around, but this camera took the abuse and all the parents loved it. It does need a larger memory card, but almost all "adult" cameras that I've bought needed a larger memory card. The only problem I have is that my daughter wants one of her own.
  
  
• Tough enough for a little tike
  By A30MZTTFXOG5FI on 2007-11-11
  I bought the camera for my grandson who is not quite 2 since he kept trying to use his dad's (my son). He really likes it but he keeps pushing the erase button so he will not have a portfolio anytime soon. The photo quality is bad but I'm sure he doesn't care. The camera is very pricy for the quality but I knew that before I bought it. If he had been at least 5 I would have bought him a real camera. I began taking photos at 5 so I know children that age can be responsible.
  
  
• good kids camera
  By A29ALRMAPYAUXX on 2007-07-19
  My 3 year old loves this camera. He has dropped it a few times with no ill effects to the camera. The pictures aren't great quality and we did need to add an SD card to allow for more pictures because he tends to just run around snapping pictures and using up all the memory. I think the problem that most people find with the picture quality is that kids tend to move the camera very quickly after taking the picture- making it blurry. But hey, it is just a kids camera after all!
  Overall happy with my purchase.
  
  
• Don't waste your money!!
  By AE2FEHNJHLR35 on 2007-10-23
  I bought this toy for my Grandson last Christmas. It worked properly for about a week. (The flash quit going off, then just had other minor problems.) We eventually took it back and got a new one, which worked a little longer (the flash would sometimes work & sometimes not work). After about a month or so the camera quit working altogether. The concept is a good idea & when it worked both my Grandson (now age 5) & Grandaughter (now age 3) loved it, but it just did not last. I buy lots of Fisher Price toys & am very disappointed in the quality of this toy. Also do not bother buying the Fisher Price Kid Tough FP3 Player. It only lasted a little longer than the camera. Both kids got quite frustrated when trying to use these items, only to find they wouldn't work properly. I also want to make it clear neither one of these toys quit due to abuse, they just simply quit working. Both of these items are quite expensive & I expected much better quality, expecially from Fisher Price!
  
  
• Great Fun for our son!
  By A29N0R6ZKOHZHS on 2007-08-05
  This was bought as a gift for our son's 4th birthday. Even though it looks like a toy and the images may not be the best quality, our son loves it because to him, it's a digital camera just like dad's. All he cares about is that it takes real pictures and he can instantly see the pictures he's taken.
  
  As a parent, it's great to look at his pictures. They give us an idea of his world and perspective.
  
  
• Grampa's happy little Photographer
  By AG6OHB3QTE9NI on 2007-10-10
  I bought this for my 4 year old Grandson. Boy, did he light up when he got his hands on this little beauty. Durable, simple to use, and Grampa has a new photo directory on his computer. I picked up a 1 Gig SD card at Radio Shack for $[...]. How great is that! Absolutely perfect for this budding new Photographer. Thank you Fisher Price.
  
  
• Great Kids Gift!
  By A8BWTGK835J3L on 2007-11-02
  This was a great durable gift for my 8 year old nephew. He was always wanting to take pictures with my brother's expensive digital and now has his own which is a big relief.
  
  
• Kid Tough Camera-a fun toy to have
  By A2NARLI96VYCS6 on 2007-11-08
  I purchased this camera for my 6 year old son, who really enjoys taking pictures. The camera itself is great; I have no complaints. But when it comes to downloading the pictures, you should make sure that you use the USB cable that came with it. I used the cable for my other camera and it wasn't a snug fit. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, all of the pictures immediately erased from the camera without transferring to the computer. As long as I have a tight fit with the cable, the pictures transfer with no problem.
  
  The only other drawback is that the pictures are of low quality. They are comparable to cell phone camera pictures, even though the camera has a flash. My son doesn't mind, though. He is just proud of all the pictures that he is able to take. All in all, I think it is a good purchase.
  
  
• Must Have
  By on 2007-10-11
  This is a must have for all toddlers. Everywhere we have taken my daughters camera all the kids have fell in love and faught over it. We just bought this one for her cousin and he loves it! Perfect for toddler hands and although the quality of the pictures isn't what we're used to it's excellent for the kids!!! It holds up very well too! Ours has been dropped and even thrown by one kid in a temper tantrum and it's still going strong.
  
  
• great kid camera!
  By A3CH2P94Y6M1ZY on 2007-09-19
  We just came back from florida and this camera was great for our 3 year old. she got to take pics from her stroller and at the character dinners. she really likes it alot and so far its seems to hold up well. pretty good pics for a kid camera and very easy for her to use. we added a memory card and set on the higher pixel setting!
  
  
• It's a great first camera -- just manage your expectations
  By A3HZY4QLFYDXE0 on 2008-04-09
  We gave our son this camera for his 4th birthday and he enjoys playing with it. He takes lots of pictures around the house and enjoys playing them back on the viewfinder screen. It is amazingly simple -- we taught him to use it in under two minutes.
  
  The battery life is OK, not great.
  
  Photo quality is definitely mediocre at best, especially in limited light conditions. Outdoors on a sunny day, it's actually not so bad. I'm a bit of a photo snob myself, but I don't mind the graininess of these pictures at all. Why not? Because it's A TOY. It's a way for children to learn a little about taking pictures, and a way for them to enjoy capturing what's in the world around them.
  
  I just downloaded 228 pictures from this camera onto my computer and reviewed them with my son. An archetypical shot was a picture of the doorstop that holds open our playroom door. This is the sort of thing a 4-year-old takes a picture of. So I just don't care that it's grainy. He likes that he took a picture, so he's happy, and I frankly don't NEED a high-quality picture of the doorstop, so I'm happy. Only a prodigy would be able to select an interesting subject, create an artful composition and capture a great image as a preschooler. So I think its lack of high resolution is moot.
  
  Check customer images to see real pictures taken by my 4-year-old.
  
  
• great video camera for kids
  By A32RN1CG6B6PU4 on 2007-11-13
  My 4 y/o grandson loved this camera. It is easy to use. His 2 y/o sister used it without difficulty. The pictures are of fair quality and it is just a lot of fun seeing the pictures they are taking. They love having a preview screen. Simple operation makes deleting pictures easy and downloading to the computer a snap with the usb cable. This item is well worth the money paid for it.
  
  
• really lousypictures
  By A3HVBHXEQD472E on 2008-01-01
  The camera is durable and probably close to indestructible. So are many other cheap digital cameras.
  Yes, our three-year old son has fun dragging it around all day and he snaps away constantly. He did the same with our old Olympus.
  the picture quality is bad - really bad. Indoors the images are pretty much unusable, outdoors the picture quality is still lousy.
  
  I would buy a cheap point and shoot for half the priice that probably lasts a year, but by then your kid has probably lost interest or wants to move on to something else.
  
  In summary - not worth the price.
  
  
• Perfect for introducing preschoolers to photography
  By A1HBC0NBQJHT7X on 2008-03-03
  My husband and I purchased this camera as a birthday gift for my 4-year-old and she was thrilled with it. The design is wonderfully intelligent as it's very easy for her to grip the sides of the camera, which also helps to keep her finger away from the flash. I also think the two viewing holes are ingenious as it's much easier for her to handle than having to squint and use one eye would be.
  
  The picture quality isn't really anything to write home about but it does take pretty decent pictures. The flash doesn't work all that well so a room has to be fairly well lit in order for anything to be distinguishable.
  
  Using the buttons to looking through the pictures and to delete them as desired is also very easy. My daughter quickly got the hang of it and I often hear her scrolling through them and deleting the ones she doesn't like.
  
  Still, I don't expect this to be a professional quality camera and it does the job it's designed to do quite well. My daughter has had a lot of fun with it and it's exciting for her to be able to take her own pictures and then to see them on the computer screen when we download them.
  
  
• Great fo my little photographer
  By A19LT9IH19D3P6 on 2007-12-27
  I had read reviews for this on amazon.com and I had a good idea of what the camera is like. What I didn't realize is how much my 4 year old would enjoy it. I am a long time amateur photography, and he loves pictures and was always wanting to use my cameras. He got this toy for Christmas two days ago and this is the toy he has played with the most. His first photos were not well composed, but with a little instruction and demonstation, he now takes pictures of people instead of parts of people. He has learned what the buttons on the back of the camera are for and uses them. I love the internal memory and the ability to erase. The camera is well designed for little hands. The two eye viewfinder is good for little people and I wish i had that on my cameras. We have not put any of his photos on the computer and printed them....he's too busy taking them. Picture quality is not the greatest, but the pleasure he gets from the camera more than makes up for that. He thinks the quality is ok and that's what really counts.
  
  
• A camera for the kids
  By A1L4SL4ACEQRGV on 2007-12-28
  Our five year old enjoys this camera very much. He is learning how to better frame his shots, how to hold still so it's not blurry, and about judging the light to see if it will come out well, and unlike real film, you don't have to print out any pix that turn out badly. He has dropped it several times and it still works. He always gets attention using it as well, people are always saying, "it's real, not a toy?"
  
  This camera is Mac/PC compatible. I was quite pleased to plug it into the Mac and have iPhoto pop up automatically. It came with software for the PC that we never bothered installing. We purchased an additional photo card so he can take hundreds of pictures without offloading them.
  
  The picture quality is not that good compared to "grownup" cameras, it is grainy and low-light pictures are very bad. The autoflash does not always come on or behave how you'd expect. Best pictures are outdoor sunny day photos. When we can trust him with a more expensive camera (and we upgrade ourselves) he can have our old Kodak digital. I've decided the artifacts from this effect are a "style" like those folks using polaroids still. Perhaps we should start a flickr group for this camera? ;)
  
  
• Worthwhile Purchase!
  By A26Q52D71650UB on 2007-12-29
  I purchased this camera for my 2 1/2 year old son because he's always been interested in how our cameras work and loves playing with old (empty)cameras. The Fisher Price camera has been great fun for him. It's easy to learn to use and he's had a blast taking pictures whenever he wants. A few notes in response to reviews I read: the delete and power buttons on the new version are in different colors (blue power, red delete); the picture quality is about the same as cell phone pictures. keep the prints small and you should be satisfied. Besides,for us, the quality of the pictures is secondary to the picture taking process. My son has a great time just taking the pictures and seeing them on the preview screen. The camera holds about 40 or so pictures without a memory card. A note on the battery compartment on the bottom of the camera- you only have to turn each screw a quarter of a turn to open the compartment. In my rush to install batteries for Christmas, I nearly stripped one of the plastic screws by turning it more than it needed.
  
  
• Great first camera
  By AG3Y83FYN4MSK on 2008-01-08
  While the picture quality and flash leave something to be desired, I think this is a great first camera for little ones. My grandson, age 4, has a blast with it and has learned how to operate it's simple layout. He loves to take pictures of everything from the floor to the dogs and is learning how to get grandpa's whole head in the picture.
  
  
• Very tough
  By AL04X5DKGYPAQ on 2008-04-17
  This camera works well. It's very durable. It has a good flash. It doesn't eat batteries. It's blue (very important for boys, for some reason...B-). Now the small downsides. The image quality isn't fabulous, but my son doesn't seem put off by that in the least. It needs a fair amount of light to take a good picture, but again, that doesn't seem to bother my 5 year old, and the flash takes care of truly dark places.
  
  What is this camera good for. Teaching holding the camera still to take a picture. No camera performs well, shaking around. Why don't little ones get that? Teaches image composition. They start to see what makes a good picture aesthetically (obviously my word...not his) pleasing. Helps them understand that pictures of people usually need to be close up to recognize the person...
  
  The long and short of it? My 5 year old loves the camera and it takes the beating he gives it. I'm certain he'll be ready to move up to a real camera in a couple of years, with no concerns, and by then, my 3 year old and 2 year old will be ready for this one!
  
  
• My daughter loves her new camera!!!
  By AQZDDJ9ZTUORB on 2007-11-20
  My daughter is loving taking pictures of everyone & everything. Thanks to fisher price for making a kid sturdy camera. My son wants one now too, & he doesn't want pink, so I guess I'll be ordering one in blue for the holidays. Great toy!!!
  
  
• Kid Tough is right
  By A3DOK7RTY2W4MN on 2007-12-17
  My son loves his camera. He takes it with to events just like mom and dad take their camera. He has banged it, dropped it and bashed it. It keeps working like a charm. As far as picture quality, it is everything I expected from a lower res kids first camera. 4x6 prins are fine. My son liked to use my camera so I wanted to get one for him. This makes him happy and he uses the view finder. He even sets up his own shots with his toys then shoots it from different angles.
  
  He is very proud of his pictures. Even if it is only half a person or something. He loves to see them on the computer.
  
  
• Great for a 3-year old photog
  By A1IJORJGRIM96P on 2007-12-26
  My 3-year old loves digital cameras. He was delighted with this gift and I no longer need to worry about him using my camera. You get what you pay for. A sturdy camera that takes ok pictures. Use the high quality photo setting and get an SD card.
  
  
• Don't buy this camera!
  By A2SEIBW4LRPYYJ on 2007-12-27
  We bought this camera for our almost 4 year old for Christmas expecting it to be a great toy for her. It worked great for about 10 minutes, then the screen locked up with a rainbow and the number 50 on it. I spent about 45 minutes troubleshooting the camera to find out that the slot for the SD card is bad. We bought it at Costco and they included a standard, slow 128MB card. I tried the card in my own camera and it worked fine. The slot on the camera is bad and my daughter is heartbroken. I will be returning it and will buy the Vtech. Should have gone with it in the first place.
  
  
• Great for kids
  By AODCYBHJGGTO on 2007-12-29
  We bought the camera for our 5 year old grandson for Christmas. He loves it. It takes reasonable pictures and his parents can get rid of the bad ones easily. It was a great choice for a gift.
  
  

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